Bloating- What Is It and Why Do I Have It?
Feeling bloated after meals is a red flag that something is not working correctly in the digestive tract. Bloating after small meals or snacking is an even worse sign. Worse yet is bloating after drinking water…. That’s like the trump card. You should not be bloated in general, but if you are experiencing bloating after EVERYTHING you put in your body including drinking water, then it’s time to dig into what the problem is.
Digging into your GI problems to find the root cause ;)
There are SO many different reasons why you may be bloating. You could have a food intolerance, allergy, or sensitivities (which I will touch more on in the next few weeks), you could be in a chronically stressed or heightened state, you could have low stomach acid (i’ll also get back to this in the next few weeks!), you could be constipated or dehydrated. There are plenty more reasons, but we don’t need to get ahead of ourselves right now. My previous blogs touched on constipation which is extremely complicated and person dependent, but this is a leading cause of bloating. To determine why you may be constipated and/or bloated, we need to find the root cause of why your body is reacting to whatever stimulus it’s acting to. I know I say this a lot, but everyone’s physiology and health history is so different (and so cool!) that we can’t make blanket statements about where any issues in the body are coming from. It’s a totally person dependent thing.
So what exactly is bloating? It’s when your belly feels full, tight and can also be distended. It’s typically from gas, but it can also be from inflammation. Bloating can occur in the stomach, small intestine, large intestine or the uterus if you are menstruating. It’s noteworthy that if you are a menstruating female, then between the time of ovulation and menstruation your total water volume in the body does increase, so bloating in this case is normal, while uncomfortable, it is not a reason for concern.
The three most common causes for bloating:
You need to change your eating habits. Either you are eating too much in one sitting, you are not chewing your food enough, you are distracted or stressed while you are eating or you chew a lot of gum during the day (you swallow air bubbles then once you start eating there isn’t quite enough room).
You are dehydrated all day, then once you eat your body can’t properly absorb food.
Your gut is dysbiosis. This means your gut bacteria is out of whack or maybe you have H. Pylori or a parasite.
If you are in a state of flare up, try these simple foods:
Ginger root
Peppermint
Fennel
Avocados
Bananas
I help people find the root cause of their bloating and constipation and tackle these problems with a lasting diet and lifestyle change. If you are interested in learning more about my work, please find the contact page on my website and explore around to get to know me better!
XOXO
Katelyn